A thrilling end to the second Protyre Ginetta GT5 Challenge race at Brands Hatch went the way of Oli Basey-Fisher once again, snatching the victory from Jake Giddings on the run to the line.
The duo staged their own duel following an early safety car period, where Academy Motorsport‘s Basey-Fisher stole the victory from his Total Control Racing rival in a thrilling final lap.
The start of the race was the scene of the most significant drama, Basey-Fisher and Giddings maintaining their front row slots into Paddock Hill Bend.
Behind them however, David Pittard tried a move around the outside of the pack, contact occurring into the downhill right-hander that sent Pittard wide and series leader Bailey into the barriers, Clive Richards also involved in the incident.
The top three of Basey-Fisher, Giddings and Luke Davenport all made their break from Will Burns on the race restart, where Giddings left his attack for the final five minutes of the half-hour encounter.
Giddings exited Graham Hill Bend with much better drive, pulling alongside and out-braking Basey-Fisher for the lead into the Surtees hairpin.
The race one winner was not going down lightly however, almost re-taking the lead a corner later before setting up a final lap showdown between the pair.
Basey-Fisher’s attacking around the outside at Paddock Hill Bend did not pay off, but he bided his time and swiftly grasped his opportunity coming out of the final Clearwyas corner, powering past the TCR G40 to steal the win at the line by just 0.097s.
“He just got a better run out of the last corner and took the inside line”, said Giddings.
Davenport sealed third ahead of Burns, while Will Moore appeared from the first corner kerfuffle in fifth place where he went on to finish in that same spot at the flag. However, his start was adjudged to have been jumped, the 10-second penalty that followed dropping him to 11th place.
The top five was therefore rounded out by Ben Hyland after his battle with Moore, sixth going to Stephane Romecki ahead of Callum Pointon, Chrissy Palmer, Gary Duckman and the recovering Pittard rounding out the top 10.
Tor McIlroy also joined Bailey and Richards as retirements, spinning his car at the exit of Paddock Hill.
Stuart Pearson once again took the G20 class win ahead of Brian Murphy and Mark De Spong, Gary Simms suffering from a time penalty for a jump start also.
